Production of color stabilized petroleum oils



y 1942 H. s. M. FISCHER ETAL 2,282,514

PRODUCTION OF COLOR STEBILIZED PETROLEUM OILS Filed Jgly 26, 1939 I5Sheets-Sheet l I W MS i y 1942- H. e. M. FISCHER ETAL 2,282,514 IPRODUCTION OF COLOR STABILIZED PETROLEUM OILS Filed July 26, 19:59 sSheets-Sheet 2 y 1942. H. s. M. FISCHER ET AL 2,232,514

PRODUCTION OF COLOR STABILIZED PETROLEUM QILS Filed July 26, 1959 3Sheets-Sheet 3 Z6 {Q5 u a W SM Patentec] May 12, 1942 UNETED STATESPATENT OFFICE PRODUCTION OF C PETROLE Fischer, Westfield, Palembang,Sumatra, Dutch East Herbert G. M.

lem James,

OLOR STABILIZED UM OILS N. J., and Wil- Indies, assignors ofthree-fourths to Standard Oil Development Company, a corporation of DelGil Company,

aware, and one-fourth Incorporated Application July 26, 1939, Serial No.286,548

3 Claims.

bilized petroleum products are produced by treating petroleum oils in aninitial stage with an iron oxide under conditions adapted to producemaximum colorization of the oil, followed by subjecting the oil in asubsequent stage to a, treatment, preferably distillation, in order toremove the color bodies from the oil.

It is well known in the art that mineral oils,

ious methods have been proposed and tried in an effort to preventdeterioration and loss of the oil in this manner. For example, onemethod has been to store the oil for a of the oil, followed by theremoval of the iron oxide and color bodies from the color stabilizedproduct. The process of our invention may be readily understood byreference to the attached diagrammatical drawings illustrating preferredmodifications of the same. Figure 1 illustrates Figure 3 illustrates afurther modification of our invention by which of iron oxide.

Referring specifically to Figure 1, it may be seen that petroleum oil isintroduced into mixer l by means of feed line 2. In m1xer I the oil beraised to an optimum temperature by means of heating unit 2|. Timecontacting tank 5 may also be provided with suitable heating and in-The- Table 1 Time of contact 1% hours 2 hours 3*} hour 1 hour Operationig??? of number Sayb. Color Sayb. Color Sayb. Color Sayb. Color colorincrease color increase color increase color increase after absoluteafter absolute after absolute after absolute test units units test unitstest units From the above data it is readily apparent that there existsa critical quantity of iron oxide which will produce the maximumcolorization of the oil. It is to be particularly noted that thiscritical quantity at a temperature of 212 F. lies between 0.50 and 2.50grams of ferric oxide. It also should be noted that the maximumcolorization was produced at a contact time period of from one hour toone and one-half hours. Upon subsequent distillation of the oil treatedin the above described manner, it was found that the distilled oil wasentirely stable and that further colorization was not secured byadditional treatment with iron oxide.

The results of operations 4, 5, 6, and 1 indicate that the iron oxide isprobably effective as an adsorbent in removing the color bodies from theoil. This is entirely undesirable for the production of a colorstabilized oil in accordance with the process of the present inventionsince an unduly large quantity of iron oxide would be required.Furthermore, a large quantity of iron oxide would have to be treatedperiodically to remove the adsorbed color bodies. It would materiallyincrease operating cost and thus render the process impractical from acommercial Viewpoint.

EXAMPLE 2 The iron oxide removed from operation No. 7 in Example 1 wascarefully extracted with chloroform. In this manner, 120 mg. of a darkbrown viscous material were obtained from the 20 grams of iron oxideused. This viscous material was found to be quite soluble in naphtha andproduced a greenish yellow color. Thus from these data, it is evidentthat the color bodies fouled on the reagent and that it is undesirableand uneconomical to use a quantity of iron oxide above the criticalquantity producing maximum colorization of the oil.

EXAMPLE 3 A sample of 500 cc. of a kerosene (0.5 absolute color units)was mixed with 40 grams of iron oxide and blown with air from a shortperiod. To one-half of this treated sample was then added one gram ofiron oxide and the treatment with air was repeated. A sample of theoriginal oil (250 cc.) was now treated with one gram of iron oxide andair just as in the second treatment above, that is to say there-treatment.

Table 2 shown in the Samples (1) Original oil color Or g nal aftertreatment with 40 grams iron oxide (3) Original after treatment with 1gram iron oxide (4) Sample 2 after re-treatment with 1 gram iron oxideThe above tests show that the maximum depth of color (17 units) 40 gramshad a color depth of 1.60 units. Upon re-treatment of this material withone additional gram of iron oxide, the

perature in the range from 200 F. to 350 F'.,

grams of iron oxide consisting of F9203 to about 1000 cc. of 011 at atemperature in the range from about 200 F. to about 350 F., maintainingthe mixture at the desired temperature for about bodies from the coloredoil to produce a color stabilized oil.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the separated iron oxide isused over again in another treating step for stabilizing petroleum oilwithout revivifying or regenerating the iron oxide.

HERBERT G. M. FISCHER. WILLEM JAMES.

